Hartford's JCJ Architecture expands in Sin City

Norman Bell

Bob Gdowski, managing director of JCJ's southwest offices, greets prospective clients at the recent Global Gaming Expo. He said the event provided the opportunity to introduce the design team leading the Hartford-based firm's new Las Vegas office, JCJ's ninth.

JCJ Architecture, the Hartford-based design firm, used the Global Gaming Expo this week to launch its Las Vegas office.

Bob Gdowski, managing director of JCJ's southwest cluster of offices, said the firm has been operating in Las Vegas since January, utilizing co-op space. Its new office is scheduled to be ready Oct. 29 in the rapidly growing office district in the city's southwest quadrant.

The new five-person team includes both architects and interior designers and is led by Kris Irwin, who had been teaching interior design at UNLV, and Michael Larson, who moved over from Klai Juba Wald Architects in Las Vegas. Gdowski also has Las Vegas experience, having served as director of design at Marnell Corrao Associates from 2005 to 2008. He worked in China for eight years before joining JCJ in 2016.

Gdowski said JCJ's decision to open the new office is fueled by economic opportunities in the city and region. Within a mile of JCJ's booth at the Sands Expo Center, work has begun on Madison Square Garden's Sphere concert venue, the Wynn's hotel and lagoon project and the sprawling Asian-themed Resorts World casino. A few miles further away, cranes are raising steel on the new home of the NFL Raiders and a baseball stadium for the Oakland A's AAA affiliate.

Additionally, the Clark County School District, the sixth largest in the nation, is in the midst of a 10-year capital development program that is expected to add dozens of new schools.

Gdowski said he had no announcements to make yet but that there are deals in the works. During the four days of the gaming trade show, he said he made some initial contacts and advanced other discussions.

JCJ has a lengthy record of achievement in designing schools, including work at Trinity and Wesleyan colleges, the University of St. Joseph and several buildings at UConn. Its K-12 work runs the gamut from Choate-Rosemary Hall to the Noli Indian School in California and public schools across New England.

Its gaming credits include work on Foxwoods, Mohegan Sun at Pocono Downs, Resorts World Catskills, Plainridge Park in Massachusetts, Hollywood Park Casino in California and a host of tribal casinos across the country.

The Las Vegas office is the ninth for the 82-year-old firm that operates under an Employee Stock Ownership Program. Gdowski is based in San Diego and oversees that office as well as offices in Los Angeles, Phoenix and now Las Vegas. JCJ's headquarters is in Hartford's Coltsville Armory. Other offices are in Boston, New York, Atlanta and Tulsa.